Thursday, October 30, 2008

"The brainchild of Microsoft Researchers, SecondLight is a rear-projection technology that extends and enriches the Microsoft Surface device through the ability to project images both through and beyond the surface display, such as onto a translucent piece of plastic. With SecondLight, the translucent piece of plastic can also function as a “magic lens.” For instance, if it is” passed over an image displayed on the primary surface – suchas a car – it provides a view of the “inner workings” behind the image. In another application of this so-called “layering effect”, the transparency could register images of constellations when passed over a surface displaying the night sky. The technology also permits gesture-based interactions with the surface from farther away than rear- projected systems allow."

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Glassdoor is a site that gives insider reports on salaries and the zeitgeists of more than 11,000 companies.

Glassdoor's goal is simple: To make salary and workplace-quality information as public as possible. The service is free, but in order to get information users have to provide information. If a user wants to find out how much, say, a midlevel engineer at Microsoft makes, he or she has to provide information about his or her current job and company. It's anonymous, and Glassdoor screens information that seems bogus or plain-old axe-grinding.

It's a cool idea and is packaged in a user freidnly way. Check out the site here.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Almost three years after stepping down as chairman of the Federal Reserve, a humbled Alan Greenspan admitted that he had put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and had failed to anticipate the self-destructive power of wanton mortgage lending. "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief," he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

During the hearing, last Thursday, Mr Greenspan came in for one of the harshest grillings of his life, as Democratic lawmakers asked him time and again whether he had been wrong, why he had been wrong and whether he was sorry.

"You had the authority to prevent irresponsible lending practices that led to the subprime mortgage crisis. You were advised to do so by many others," said Representative Henry Waxman of California, chairman of the committee. "Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?"

Mr Greenspan conceded: "Yes, I’ve found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I’ve been very distressed by that fact."

Mr Waxman noted that the Fed chairman had been one of the nation’s leading voices for deregulation, displaying past statements in which Mr Greenspan had argued that government regulators were no better than markets at imposing discipline.

"Were you wrong?" Mr. Waxman asked.

"Partially," the former Fed chairman reluctantly answered.

Since Mr Greenspan’s testimony, a plethora of scathing attacks on his chairmanship of the Fed have emerged. Many commentators blame him for the financial crisis. Much of the attention is devoted to the irresistible dichotomy of blaming Mr Greenspan for the current turmoil, having previously worshipped him as the god of all things shiny and bling.

Following the attacks on Mr Paulson, Dr Bernanke, every CEO on Wall Street and now Mr Greenspan, it appears that the Government and the media’s appetite for blaming people for this crisis is insatiable. Don’t get me wrong, I have little sympathy for investment bankers or government officials. What is intriguing is that apparently, while Mr Greenspan and other officials were blundering about the Fed and investment bankers were indulging their narcissistic desires, every senator, journalist and media blog commentator could see the crisis coming and was waiting for the recession to hit.

If I had a dollar for every time I read a phrase like “one doesn't need a Nobel prize to know what brought about the collapse of the markets”, I would have enough money to prop up the economy myself.

Is the answer really that obvious? Ignoring the actual mechanics of the crisis, yes the answer does seem pretty obvious. Did most people see it coming? I think people knew it could happen, but the conclusion was too repugnant for most to accept.

So what was the cause? Mr Greenspan says it himself, we misjudged human behaviour. Mr Greenspan, Wall Street and the supporters of capitalism are guilty of failing to grasp, and possibly even denying, three key tenants of human nature: the primacy of greed, our tendency towards sheep mentality and a predisposition to panic.

Now that these traits have come to the fore, officials and the media are calling for a total rethink of how the financial sector operates and how Government’s interact with the economy.

What is not being discussed, however, is that these behaviours paint a very dim view of human nature. If we accept these notions of ourselves, then the implications go well beyond rethinking the economy. We should also consider the role of government and the design and purpose of social policy.

Is this really what be believe about ourselves? Historically, we have characterised the distinctive qualities of human nature in terms such as egalitarianism, independence and rationality. I suspect these qualities are still very relevant.

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years of electing incompetent Presidents of the USA therefore not be able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.(You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (Look up 'vocabulary'.)

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as '' l ike' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U . S . English. We will let M i crosoft know on your behalf. The M i crosoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist,then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. Australian beer is also acceptable, as Australia is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There are only three kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, Australian Rules and rugby. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

The LA Times has a photo essay on inspirational pumpkin carvings. I've never really been interested in Halloween, but I respect the effort people have put into these pumkin carvings. Check it out here.

This is such a cool idea: Watt, a new dance club in Rotterdam, has a dance floor that harvests the energy generated by jumps and gyrations and transforms it into electricity. At Watt, which describes itself as the first sustainable dance club, that electricity is used to power the light show in and around the floor. "For this first club, we thought it was useful for people to see the results," said Michel Smit, an adviser on the project.

Watt is in large part the creation of the Sustainable Dance Club, a quirky company formed last year by a group of Dutch ecological inventors, engineers and investors now headed by Mr Smit. More than a year in the making, Watt is a huge performance space with not just the sustainable dance floor, but also rainwater-fed toilets and low-waste bars. Its heat is harvested in part from the bands’ amplifiers and other musical equipment.

"Our idea is that there’s enough energy in this world, you just have to use it the right way," Mr Smit said. "If you have a full dance club, there’s lots there, you just have to turn it into a usable product."

Monday, October 27, 2008

Asian stocks plunged today, for the fourth day in a row, on concern (panic) economic stimulus measures (bumbling government policies) will fail to stop a global slowdown (recession).

Japanese shares fell to their lowest level in 26 years and the Hang Seng had its biggest one-day decline since 1997, closing down 12.7%. Meanwhile, trading halts were triggered in the Philippines and Thailand after the country's benchmark gauges lost 10%.

Japan's Prime Minister, Taro Aso, said he'd draft measures to help counter the financial crisis. For some reason, Mr Aso’s clear and definitive plan had no effect on the sell off. Perhaps Mr Aso should have threatened to write a strongly worded memo?

Meanwhile, in South Korea, the Bank of Korea slashed its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to 4.25 per cent and said it would buy up to Won10,000bn ($7bn) of bank bonds to provide more liquidity to the banking sector. The action came as President Lee Myung-bak said the local currency was stable and the country was far from repeating the Asian financial crisis a decade ago … ops, did he say that out loud? Mentioning the fact that South Korea required a $57bn bail-out from the IMF to avoid a national default during ’97-’98 Asian financial crisis was probably not the best way to calm the markets.

In response to a question about the Bank of Korea’s actions, Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, noted that the rate cut “won't make much difference right now." His reasoning, which I think is on the money, is that “they're really in the middle of a complete panic and probably part of the panic has been created internally by making a kind of ad hoc policy. They don't seem to really have a coherent game plan.” I pretty sure Prof. Hanke’s comments apply to all the economies in the region at the moment.

I think it is time to start selling my patented integrated futon-safe invention. You heard it here first.

Microsoft has expanded its latest WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) initiative to China. The programme they are using turns the screen of computers running pirated Windows black every hour. Unsurprisingly, since a large number of Chinese computer users run unauthorized copies of Windows, they're fairly upset.

Although I have a shoe cupboard in the entrance of my apartment, it lacks the sophistication of Kickit. Kickit is basically a giant brush, which catches your shoes when you kick them into it. Brilliant.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Respect to Colin Powell for speaking out against the Republicans' racist undertones towards Barack Obama and anyone else not from a small town that went for W.

C. Powell: "I'm also troubled not with what Senator McCain says but what members of the party say and it is permitted to be said, such things as, "Well, you know Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is that Mr. Obama is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no. That's not America."

io9 has an article about Borders' decision to stop stocking many scifi titles, which is very disappointing. I appreciate that Borders has to make commercial decisions about what books it sells. From now on, however, I will be making my book related commercial decisions elsewhere.

'All Day I Dream About Sneakers' is a new collaborative project from Adidas Originals and Lifelounge, inspired by the brand’s avid creeds of ‘Impossible Is Nothing’ and ‘Celebrate Originality’. The project showcases the story and kicks created by the world’s original sneaker freak, Herr Fritz Träumer – a mythical and enigmatic sneaker designer who dedicated his lifetime to constructing the most original range of sneakers ever seen.

On Friday night, I ventured into the Lyric Theatre at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts to see Maria Aitken’s production of "The 39 Steps". As I was walking into the venue, I realised how long it had been since I’d last attended a theatre production – my last outing in memory was going to see Sir Ian McKellen play King Lear in Wellington more than a year ago. It's not that I don't like going to the theatre, quite the opposite. Rather, when it comes to making a decision about how to spend my free time, theatre suffers from a serious image problem.

Faced the prospect of booking tickets for the theatre, my immediate assumption is that it will be a dull, cerebral affair – an unfortunate result of being dragged to far too many post-modern, 'high brow' productions in my youth. My preconceptions are not helped by theatre reviewers, who typically start their reviews with some sort of esoteric comment about the director and his/her use of "human props" or by commenting that the play "transforms its characters into archetypal puppets of destiny". Yawn … theatre reviewers need to take a leaf out of their 'low brow' movie reviewing counterpart's book: Say what you actually thought of the play in the first paragraph. I read the first paragraph of a review and if it doesn't grab my interest I move onto something else.

I've digressed. As noted above, on Friday I made my long-awaited return to the theatre, by going to see The 39 Steps. I'm pleased to say that the play was an absolute pleasure to watch, and was a much better choice for Friday night than M&Ms and a car chase movie, which was the alternative plan. The 39 Steps is light-hearted and somewhat silly, but the result is charming without being grating. The four cast members skillfully perform a vast range of characters and at times play several different people in the same scene.

The 39 Steps reminded me of how fun theatre can be. As a result, I’ve challenged myself to overcome my prejudices and go to see more live productions. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

One of the things I really like about the Fallout series is the beautiful jazz-age, 1950's style the games have. I'm pleased to see that this style has been retained for Fallout 3, the latest installment of the series. Check out these fantastic posters for Fallout 3, care of Bethesda Blog, which have be put up in Metro Center in Washington DC. I wish they would put some of these posters up in my local MTR station.

I recommend checking out the trailer, which features some in-game video footage. I'm not convinced about Fallout 3's move to first person perspective, but I'll demonstrate uncharacteristic restraint and reserve judgement until I've actually played the game.

The Jumeira Gardens is a mega development in the heart of Dubai, which will include the proposed Park Gate complex. Park Gate comprises 6 mid-rise towers facing each other to form a garden space and create a shaded micro climate.

The shade is accomplished by linking the towers with a vaulted canopy structure. The space beneath the canopies is transformed into a verdant grotto. Vegetation is enmeshed with the canopies and exterior balconies of the towers, creating a highly sustainable 360 degree garden.

Game developer Level5 has teamed up with Studio Ghibli to produce a Nintendo DS role-playing game called Ni no Kuni: The Another World.

Ghibli is producing the in-game animation footage. Apparently, the game's unique feature will be the “Magic Master” book that will come bundled with it. Within the story, a 13-year-old boy is transported to another world with the Magic Master book; the player references the physical copy of the book to learn magical spells while playing the game.

I’m interested to see how this collaboration works out. The development art for the game looks fantastic and the trailer is interesting (see below).

Friday, October 10, 2008

“I had hoped I was finally done with acting as an interpreter for politicians whose relationship with the English language was tumultuous …

“There’s W.’s gummy grammar, of course, like the classic, “Is our children learning?” And covering the first Bush White House required doing simultaneous translation for a president who never met a personal pronoun he liked or a wacky non sequitur he could resist …

“We could, following [Sarah Palin’s] strenuously folksy debate performance, wonder when elite became a bad thing in America. Navy Seals are elite, and they get lots of training so they can swim underwater and invade a foreign country, but if you’re governing the country that dispatches the Seals, it’s not O.K. to be elite? Can likable still trump knowledgeable at such a vulnerable crossroads for the country? …

“With her pompom patois and sing-songy jingoism, Palin can bridge contradictory ideas that lead nowhere: One minute she promises to get “greater oversight” by government; the next, she lectures: “Government, you know, you’re not always a solution. In fact, too often you’re the problem.” ...

“When she was asked by Couric if she’d ever negotiated with the Russians, the governor replied that when Putin “rears his head” he is headed for Alaska. Then she uttered yet another sentence that defies diagramming: “It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there.” ....

“She dangles gerunds, mangles prepositions, randomly exiles nouns and verbs and also — “also” is her favorite vamping word — uses verbs better left as nouns, as in, “If Americans so bless us and privilege us with the opportunity of serving them,” or how she tried to “progress the agenda.” …”

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article written by Stanley Weiser, one of co-writers of Wall Street, on the infamous words "Greed is good". In the article, Wiser comments that:

"… if director Oliver Stone and I had a nickel for every time someone uttered the words "greed is good," we could have bought up the remains of Lehman Brothers.

"As the years have gone by, it's heartening to see how popular the film has remained. But what I find strange and oddly disturbing is that Gordon Gekko has been mythologized and elevated from the role of villain to that of hero.

"… In developing the character of Gordon Gekko, I formed an amalgam of disgraced arbitrageur Ivan Boesky, corporate raider Carl Icahn, and his lesser-known art-collecting compatriot Asher Edelman. Add a dash of Michael Ovitz and a heaping portion of, yes, my good friend and esteemed colleague Stone (who came up with the character's name) -- and there you have the rough draft of 'Gekko the Great.'

"Gekko's dialogue actually was inspired by Stone's own rants. Listening to Oliver's early morning cajoling and sarcastic phone calls (I write at night) exhorting me to work: "Where the hell are you? Out having a gourmet breakfast, playing with the kids in the park?" Or: "The one thing you don't do is everything I tell you to do; next time write a note and pin it on your . . . forehead." Other unpublishable barbs proved to be the precise varnish with which I needed to coat Gekko."

What, Gekko is based on Oliver Stone? Well that’s that sacred cow dragged down. Perhaps the hordes of MBA 'well I guess I'll just join an ibank and become an egotistical megalomaniac' graduates, will now start lining up to be film directors?

Weiser’s thrust is that people have misunderstood Gekko, which is true. Weiser, however, seems to undervalue the fact that Gekko, despite being underhanded and despicable, also displays ‘admirable’ qualities, for example he’s smart, decisive and charming. I find the most memorable villains are the ones I grudgingly respect and admire. This is often because the villain is very similar to the hero, but circumstances have led them down a different path. I like the Gekko / Fox relationship not just because Fox is one step away from being Gekko, but also because Gekko is only one step away from being Fox (although this sentence reads like a truism, I think you get what I mean).

This villain/hero crossover is what Mr Lucus tried to reverse engineer into Star Wars, but ended running a master class in character assassination. Lucas needs to spend a quiet afternoon watching Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Mr Nolan did an excellent job of tackling this whole issue by mixing villainous and heroic qualities across all his characters. My favourite character is the Joker, who yields a knack for strategy and guile not seen since Homer unleashed Odysseus (I acknowledge this may be hyperbole).

Weiser concludes by noting: “Several months ago, I was at Stone's office and I saw him autograph a "Wall Street" poster. Above his name, he wrote, "Greed is a bummer."”

During Tuesday night’s Presidential Debate, Senator McCain chastise Senator Obama over earmarks, in particular for an exorbitant earmark for an overhead projector.

“[Obama] voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.”

That must be one hell of an overhead projector.

Fortunately, to save me and others from our curiosity, Gearlog did some investigating and found out that appropriation was requested by the Adler Planetarium to replace an awesome (but obsolete) 40-year old Zeiss Mark VI star projector with a newer model (pictured above).

Adler Planetarium Press Release: "The Adler's Zeiss Mark VI projector - not an overhead projector - is the instrument that re-creates the night sky in a dome theater, the quintessential planetarium experience. The Adler's projector is nearly 40 years old and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It is only the second planetarium projector in the Adler's 78 years of operation."

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Like Sarah Palin, I read the New York Times. However, on Sunday, while Ms Palin was reading about Mr Ayers, I was reading about the brilliant Laura Gilbert.Ms Gilbert, a Manhattan-based artist, is employing her creativity to protest what she calls “the current economic calamity.” Ms. Gilbert plans to stand on Wall Street this week and give away signed and numbered originals of “The Zero Dollar,” a slightly downsized rendering of the $1 bill with zeros in place of the ones.

Ms. Gilbert, who began working on the print after the fall of Bear Stearns earlier this year, sees the dollar bill as “symbolic of America’s stature in the world.” As a reflection of the crisis in the financial markets, she has tried to lower the monetary value of the print itself to zero by creating a very large edition of 10,000. (NYTimes and Notcot)

This certainly isn’t the reassuring sign the markets currently crave: The National Debt Clock near Times Square in New York (I know, to most people its obvious, but we have a Times Square here in Hong Kong as well), has just run out of spaces to add more zeroes to its running count of US national debt. The recent debt digit expansion is due to the one-two punch of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout and the $100 billion used to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Given the way things are heading, it might be worth adding space for a couple more digits.

I find it extremely difficult to come up with these sorts of lists. Inevitably, as soon as I’ve draft my top 10, I’ll come up with 10 other films I wish I’d put on the list. There is then a period of self-doubt – should I pick films I like to re-watch or films that have inspired me? Art-house v popular. Comedy v action ... Ultimately, the process dissolves into a bitter inner struggle, as I try to debate with myself on the comparative strengths of each film …

Notwithstanding the difficult process outlined above, I have managed to come up with my top 10 films. You can find it below, under Empire’s top 10 and sleepyanimal’s top 8.

8. Ferris Bueller7. Iron Man6. The Prestige5. Spellbound4. Lilo and Stitch3. The Royal Tenenbaums2. Lost in Translation1. This is Spinal Tap

Si’s top 10 films

10. YingXiong ("Hero")9. Spirited Away8. 2001: A Space Odyssey7. Blade Runner6. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back5. The Princess Bride4. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring3. The Matrix2. Life Aquatic1. Lost in Translation(Empire and sleepyanimal)

Monday, October 6, 2008

io9 has reported that Ridley Scott will be directing an adaption of Aldous Huxley's classic dystopian novel Brave New World. Read the article here.

Leonardo DiCaprio's production company is behind the project and it sounds as though Leo himself with be heavily involved.

I'm a big fan of Brave New World. I've also had a long held belief that Brave New World could not be successfully adapted into a movie. However, with a Ridley Scott - Leonardo DiCaprio collaboration behind it, it just might work.

If their running mates are anything to go by, I don't think we should trust either Obama or McCain's judgement.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden claimed in a recent interview that President Franklin D. Roosevelt calmed fears in a TV address at the beginning of the Great Depression. There was no TV in 1929 and Roosevelt wasn’t president at the time. Solid pick Barack.

Not to be outdone, in a speech on Sunday, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called Afghanistan “our neighboring country”. I'll acknowledge in John's defence that at least Palin fulfils the function of making him look good.

About Me

I was born in 1979, the son of two medical professionals. I grew up in good health in Wellington, New Zealand, a city known for being a high earthquake risk area and the capital of a nation nobody can place on a map.
Due to a lack of imagination I completed bachelor degrees in law and economics from Victoria University of Wellington and a graduate diploma in finance from the Financial Services Institute of Australia. To pay off my then ridiculous student loan, I became a corporate whore and worked for four years in NZ at a major financial services firm, specialising in financial modeling, valuation advice and public finance consulting.
In 2008 I moved to Hong Kong and offered up my soul to the lords of merges and acquisitions. I worked non-stop for two years in corporate finance, specialising in deal structuring, lead transaction advisory and financial due diligence. Then in early 2010, I realised that a career in finance was not for me.
So instead I’ve set about rediscovering myself as a writer, designer and game developer ... keep an eye on this space as the story continues.